No new banking licences without legal powers: Subbarao

A day after Finance Minister P Chidambaram asked the Reserve Bank to speed up the process of issuing new bank licences, Governor D Subbarao on Friday said it would be not possible without fulfilling the enabling conditions for the same.“We have been preparing for launching this process (of issuing new bank licences) but all the ground work, all the enabling conditions for launching this work have to be fulfilled,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.Yesterday, Chidambaram had said he had asked RBI to finalise the guidelines...

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63,000 public sector bank jobs up for grabs this financial year

Government-owned banks will hire over 63,000 people, including officers and clerical staff, during the current fiscal.“There are huge job opportunities for young men and women in banks. It’s a very attractive career, and young men and women must take advantage of it,” Finance Minister P. Chidambaram announced on Thursday, after a review meeting of public sector banks and financial institutions.As on September 30, all Government-owned banks had a total vacancy (officers, clerks and sub-staff combined) of 84,489. Of this, banks plan to recruit...

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Muthoot Finance to offer National Pension Scheme

The gold loan company Muthoot Finance Ltd has entered into a tie-up with the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) to offer the National Pension Scheme (NPS).With this, Muthoot Finance becomes the only NBFC in Kerala to be approved by the PFRDA to act as a service provider for the pension plan.The scheme is available to all citizens on voluntary basis and would include workers in the unorganised sector. The aim of the National Pension Scheme (NPS) is to promote old age income security.George Alexander Muthoot, Managing Director...

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SIDBI online contest for young entrepreneurs

With a view to promoting its new Web site, Small Industries and Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has launched an online contest for young entrepreneurs.SIDBI, through its Web site initiative smallB.in, has announced a contest for young entrepreneurs to win Rs 50,000 for their innovative business ideas, the bank statement said.In this contest, Indians above 18 can submit entries of their original ideas of their dream ventures, as well as analyse innovative businesses for smallB.in within the prescribed word limit. The entries are to be submitted...

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Allahabad Bank revises rates on term deposits

Allahabad Bank has revised interest rates on domestic term deposits below Rs 5 crore of varying maturities effective November 15.While the bank has raised the rates of interest in the range of 25-150 basis points on deposits in varying time buckets; it has reduced rate of interest on deposit of one-to-less than two years by 10 basis points to 9.15 per cent.The bank has also enhanced the maximum amount of deposit that can be accepted under AllBank Liquid Term Deposit Scheme to Rs 100 crore (Rs 50 crore), said a press statement issued by the...

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Religare gets nod for 49% stake sale in MF biz to Invesco

Fair trade regulator Competition Commission of India (CCI) today said it has approved Religare group’s 49 per cent stake sale in its mutual fund (MF) business to global investment management firm Invesco.According to the deal reached in September, the US-based Invesco is acquiring 49 per cent stake in Religare Asset Management Company and Religare Trustee Company Pvt Limited, which manage assets worth over Rs 14,600 crore for Religare group’s mutual fund business.Invesco is acquiring the stake through a group entity, Invesco Hong Kong Ltd,...

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Karnataka Bank cuts lending rate by 0.25%

Karnataka Bank today reduced base rate, or minimum lending rate, by 0.25 per cent to 10.75 per cent with effect from November 10, 2012.“The Bank’s base rate now stands reduced to 10.75 per cent from the earlier 11 per cent,” it said in a filing to the BSE.It also reduced rate of interest on deposits by 0.25 per cent.With the reduction in base rate, all loans linked to the base rate would be cheaper by 25 basis points (0.25 per cent).“The said reduction is applicable to the existing loans and also for the future loans. This will enable retail...

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Private sector lenders such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank emerge as investors' favourite due to lower NPAs

After the September quarter results, private sector lenders such HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank have emerged as clear investors' favourite as public sector banks reel under the stress of rising bad loans.The sluggishness in the economy is set to hurt all lenders, but state-run banks are likely to suffer more because of their exposure to infrastructure, which is expected to account for a big chunk of their NPAs. "PSU banks' valuations are cheap, but it is hard to say which bank will disappoint more on NPAs," said Abhijit Gulanikar, chief investment...

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Corp Bank observes Children’s Day

Corporation Bank celebrated the birth anniversary of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru here on Wednesday. Ajai Kumar, Chairman and Managing Director of the bank, and Ashwani Kumar, Executive Director of the bank, paid floral tributes to Pandit Nehru’s statue in front of the corporate office in Mangalore.Pradeep Kumar Kalkura, president of Kannada Sahitya Parishad (Dakshina Kannada district), Basheer Baikampady, president of Bharat Seva Dal district unit, General Managers and employees of Corporation Bank were present on the occasion.Children from many...

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RRBs need to open 1,700 branches this fiscal: RBI report

The 82 regional rural banks (RRBs) in the country need to achieve a 10 per cent growth in branch expansion in 2012-13. This, in spite of RRBs failing to achieve their branch expansion targets in the last two financial years.The RBI’s ‘Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India 2011-12’ says that the RRBs are required to open around 1,700 branches during 2012-13.As per the Government’s advice, RRBs were to open around 2,000 branches during 2010-11 and 2011-12, however, they fell short of the target. They opened 521 branches and 913 branches...

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Build robust mechanism to prevent e-banking fraud: RBI

The Reserve Bank of India wants banks to build a robust mechanism to prevent incidents of fraud in areas of mobile/Net banking and electronic fund transfer.“With greater infusion of technology in banking, the incident of frauds in Internet banking has witnessed an increase in recent times. Banks need to improve customer awareness to contain incidents of frauds involving customers,” the RBI said in its latest Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India.Ensuring efficiency of the banking sector by way of technology infusion while minimising...

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Seri Infra to set up white label ATMs

Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd said it will set up white label ATMs (WLAs) to diversify its business.The infrastructure non-banking finance company may be diversifying into the WLA business as the infrastructure financing business is facing a slowdown.WLAs are the ATMs which are provided by third parties to banks.Last week, Muthoot Finance decided to diversify into the WLA business. To accelerate the growth and penetration of ATMs in the country, the RBI, in February 2012, decided to permit non-banks to set up, own and operate ATMs.The central...

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United Bank in talks to offload stressed assets worth Rs 300 cr

United Bank of India plans to offload stressed assets amounting to Rs 200-300 crore to asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) by the end of this fiscal.According to Deepak Narang, Executive Director, the bank is already in talks with several ARCs for the sale of its stressed assets.“We have identified 70 accounts amounting to Rs 200-300 crore for offloading to ARCs. We will float tender and invite bids for these accounts,” Narang told newspersons on the sidelines of a press meet to announce the launch of U-Connect — a platform for share trading.Valuation...

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Bank of Maharashtra to provide more loans to large corporates

At a time when major public sector banks and private banks are curtailing their exposure to large corporates, small banks like Bank of Maharashtra are stepping in to fill the void.So far, the Pune-based bank focussed more on providing loans to agriculture, medium, micro and small-scale enterprises (MSMEs) and retail customers.“We will increase our focus on providing loans to large corporates. We have a total market share of only 1.20 per cent. This is our opportunity to increase that,” Narendra Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, said. The...

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Karnataka Bank cuts base rate

Karnataka Bank has reduced its base rate by 25 basis points with effect from November 10.The bank’s base rate now stands reduced to 10.75 per cent from the earlier 11 per cent. As a result, all its base rate linked loans get cheaper by 25 basis points.A bank release said here on Saturday that the reduction is applicable to the existing loans and also for the future loans. This will enable retail and MSME customers to avail funds at reduced rates.The bank has reduced the interest rates on housing loan and car loan products by 50 basis points.The...

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